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Is Volkswagen Trying to Skirt California Emissions Regulations?

Volkswagen admits that it cheated on smog tests for almost a half-million diesel engines in the US, with 50,000 to 60,000 in California alone. Company stock is already falling, fines could amount to $18 billion and all those vehicles will have to be retrofitted. That's if customers bring them in. Are they likely to do that when the whole point of the cheating was making the cars fun to drive?

FROM THIS EPISODE

Volkswagen admits that it cheated on smog tests for almost a half-million diesel engines, with 50,000 to 60,000 in California alone. Company stock is already falling, fines could amount to $18 billion and all those vehicles will have to be retrofitted. That's if customers bring them in. Are they likely to do that when the whole point of the cheating was making the cars fun to drive?

Volkswagen recently surpassed Toyota as the world's largest maker of automobiles. That includes cars fitted with so-called "clean diesel" engines -- marketed not just as being green but also as being "fun to drive." It turns out that those two things don't go together after all, and Volkswagen has admitted to cheating to make it seem like they do.

Last week, California's Fair Political Practices Commission — the FPPC — adopted new restrictions for what's called "dark money" in political campaigns. Next year, voters will be asked to crack down even harder. Bob Stern wrote the ballot measure that created the FPPC back in 1974 and he's pushing what's called the "Voters' Right to Know Act."